BPDW.COM » Film

Bowling for Buddha

Britain — Fri, 06 May 2005 12:09:32 +0000

The Dude abides in a lengthy essay, part of the “long stuff” section of Metaphilm, which is filled with many more such essays on a variety of other popular films.

GMail as obscure as I am

Britain — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 02:45:38 +0000

So, from my Gmail account, I wrote to Bill and Jeff about tonight’s film society event. Gmail suggested this page in a frame adjacent to the message. I’m still not sure why, as we live nowhere near Red Bank, but my best guess is that it recognized the subject line I used — “Tonight, tonight, the street’s just right” — and provided a greeting from Asbury Park.

FWIW, we didn’t do anything having anything to do with improv, unless you count going to a later movie when we missed the showing we wanted first. As a general rule we are not stand-up comedy people, though I recently saw Jon Stewart live and would make similar exceptions for Mr. Show alumni or Courtney Cronin.

NYT christens the “Man Date”

Britain — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 22:49:22 +0000

I have been doing this for years. Around here we don’t call it a “man date” and get all self-conscious about it, we call it the Sepatown Detroit Film Society ["Sepatown" after an affirmative Pootie Tang uses in conversation -- I think]. Granted, we wind up eating mostly at bars, but still. Often there is a movie involved. Occasionally up to five members of the society attend a meeting, but more often than not it’s just me and Bill. Maybe it’s just because we’re in Detroit and not New York, but I have never gotten the urge to drop my mug and make out with Bill. I believe Bill will echo these sentiments.

Heat Vision and Jack D1R3CT D0WNL04D |\|0W!!!11!1!

Britain — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 06:45:00 +0000

Perhaps you have heard of Heat Vision and Jack. I myself got the whole thing over the course of about a month waiting patiently on LimeWire.

Well lookie here,
Waxy’s hosting the files now. If you like funny things, fire up your broadband and get it “now, before I change my mind.” This will particularly appeal to all three of you folks who liked Zoolander, as the twain have much in common in terms of actors, writers, and sensibility.

Lebowski 7:19…

Britain — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 00:17:00 +0000

…says, um, “I just marked it eight.” I like the street sign best, of course.

Family Friendly

Britain — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 03:59:00 +0000

Apparently three new shows, including that CGI sitcom about Siegfried and Roy’s tigers, have been bankrolled in part by a a nonprofit organization devoted to making it worth the networks’ while to develop family-friendly stuff.

These new shows, if they really want to survive and aren’t some kind of “The Producers”-esque stunt, will likely never advertise that fact. Have you ever seen the logo on the upper left of this link on a poster or print ad? Browsing this site, I was surprised to discover that popular, mainstream films have received this award but don’t advertise it [I am thinking of “Elf” and “Finding Nemo”]. Ostensibly because they don’t really need to, because they’re already popular. Secondarily, they don’t want to put it on there because, to a certain audience, that symbol is a virtual guarantee of no cussing, no blood, and no boobies, so what’s the point?

All this said, there are some helpful sites for deciding whether you, if you are easily offended, really want to see a movie. Screen It and Decent Films are intelligent and frank, whereas CAP Alert [“NOT a daycare organization!”] is just flat-out funny. Cap’n CAP is now begging for $1500 a month, but he’s spending it on films like “Kill Bill,” a film whose very title implies not-for-kids. And what Christian parent’s child has clamored to see Nick Nolte’s Oscar bid? Though I must concede that CAP Alert’s review of the South Park movie is an internet review classic.

The Day After Tomorrow

Britain — Sun, 06 Jun 2004 07:31:00 +0000

“Mean Girls” was pretty damned funny, but Tina Fey ain’t got much on the latest Roland Emmerich disaster epic. With hackneyed dialogue, “what-the-@#&%” plot points, and the occasional intentional humor that worked, this was hands-down the funniest movie I’ve seen all spring. I think the rest of our film society [that would be you, Bill] will back me up on this.

This script review sees clear problems but doesn’t go into enough details on the plot points you could drive a low-pressure zone through. Reason touches on a planned Parker/Stone puppet parody of the film. I think what this really needs is a Rocky Horror-style audience participation script. Barring that I would be willing to settle for a lengthy skewering in the vein of this legendary rec.arts.movies.reviews review of “Dracula”.

I should note that the special effects are fantastic. I love a good storm in real life [living in the Detroit area lately, I should] and I greatly enjoyed the imaginings of violent weather depicted in this film up to its ice age. I’m not even saying this in the “Yay, L.A. got torn to pieces” way that most LA’ers think that us midwesterners think, although that was pretty cool too. But the human dramedy crammed in amidst all the natural disaster leavens the tone nicely.